Denmark’s Latest Dessert Trend Is Healthy, Delicious, and Easy to Make

When you think of porridge, it most likely calls to mind a healthy breakfast staple topped with some honey or nuts. Or, in more recent years, chefs around the globe have revisited the humble dish and adopted it as the perfect base for their own unique savory creations, doctoring it up with everything from chanterelle mushrooms and pickled vegetables to poached eggs to frog’s legs. But in Denmark, at the height of summer (right now), it’s dessert porridge that reigns supreme.

“It’s the taste of summer vacation for Danes,” says Mette Helbak of the highly popular Stedsans ØsterGro, a veggie-forward, rooftop communal dining space in Copenhagen that she runs with her husband, chef Flemming Hansen. (Some say it’s even harder to get a table here than at Noma these days.) “Every Dane’s mom or grandmother has made this dish, and that’s why, to most of us, the taste and smell of rødgrød [porridge] brings back memories from our childhood.”

Just a few weeks ago, Stedsans added dessert porridge as the final dish of their ever-changing, multi-course dinner menu, which features super-fresh ingredients from their garden and other local, biodynamic and organic farms. Why now? “We have this time during summer when the strawberries have been in season for about a month, and the rhubarb for even longer,” says Helbak. “That’s when we start making rødgrød med fløde [red porridge with cream]—because we can! We don’t have the same careful way of treating the strawberries as in the beginning of the season, when we prefer to eat them raw with just cream and sugar. Now they are getting a bit overripe, and that’s why they are good in a porridge.”

Expand

Rødgrød

Photo: Line Thit Klein

Though the key to this dish is the perfectly sweet fruit you top it off with, it’s important to start with a good porridge. Helbak says the trick is to add the potato starch at the right time, as soon as you turn off the heat and right after the porridge has stopped boiling. Make sure to stir for a while to avoid lumps. “Sometimes when people make it at home, they insist it should be lumpy because that’s how their mom always made it,” says Helbak. Wrong! You want it to be a little chewy, but more like a stew in terms of texture.

Traditionally, the porridge is just served with cream. At Stedsans, they top it off with berries (strawberries and raspberries), Guatemalan chocolate nibs, chopped nuts, herbs (chocolate mint, strawberry mint, elderflower, et cetera), and plenty of extra cream (preferably, double cream, if you aren’t concerned about keeping it super healthy). The result is positively heavenly—you’ll want to lick the plate even after you’ve devoured it.

“You could definitely use a scoop of melting vanilla ice cream, too, but it would be very untraditional,” adds Helbak. “Usually, you serve the porridge warm on the day it’s made and cold for the next few days after that.” Bonus: It is also good mixed with yogurt.

To make the red porridge: Cut the rhubarb into 1/4-inch pieces. Place rhubarb, sugar and water in a pot, and bring it to a boil. Let the rhubarb simmer for about 10 minutes. Cut the strawberries in half. Add them to the rhubarb porridge, and let the porridge boil for another 10 to 15 minutes until the strawberries are soft. Remove the pot from the heat, and add the potato starch. Stir until the porridge thickens. Serve with pickled rhubarb, ice-cold double cream, and fresh strawberries and raspberries (depending on what is in season). Additional topping suggestions: chopped nuts, chocolate nibs, ice cream.

To make the raw pickled rhubarb: Place cane sugar and water in a pot, bring it to a boil, and remove from the heat. Cut rhubarb in 1/4-inch slices, and add the pieces to the sugar water while it’s still very hot/boiling. Cover with a lid and leave until cold—or longer.